Lying Like a Lox

"Lying like a lox" is a real expression. It comes from this long-ago SNL faux-commercial starring Gilda Radner and Larraine Newman

So I spent the majority of this Sunday lying around like a lox. It was awesome. I don't think I've ever been so relaxed (or loxxed) in my entire life. AWESOME. Total sweet awesomeness. At one point, I said, "Look at me, lying around like a lox." And then I couldn't remember where that came from. I was thinking from a Woody Allen bit in Without Feathers or something, but I couldn't quite grasp it. So I put the little librarian in the back of my brain (the one who goes looking through all the layers of memories and information whenever you think you know something but can't remember it. he's the one who shoves the little nugget up into the front part of your brain at 4am so you endup sitting upright in bed screaming, "Roy Dawson was the smarmy host of Family Feud!" Or "Avogadro's equation!" or you finally remember the fifth verse to American Pie, even though you'd stopped thinking about trying to remember these things.)

Anyhoo! So because i'm an obsessive virgo, i figured out where LYING LIKE A LOX comes from. it's from a transcript of an early SNL faux commercial for Puppy Uppers and Doggy Downers. In the shooting script, it says "[Jill is visiting Joy, whose dog is lying like a lox on the living room floor. Joy throws a ball at the dog, but he just stares at it as it rolls by.] "

and, in this particular SNL book I have (from the early 80s,) one of the other writers has underlined 'lying like a lox' and written in "expression courtesy of F. Schuster."

Back in the dizzay, I pored copiously over this SNL book because i thought (and still do, actually) that a lot of the handwritten comments in it are hi-larious. And I guess "lying like a lox" stuck in my head. And then I decided to cross-reference "F. Schuster" in my brain and realized it must be Frank Schuster, who is the father of Rosie Schuster, an early SNL writer. Frank Schuster is also 1/2 of the legendary comedy team "Wayne and Schuster" and Frank Shuster was a total mentor to one of my heroes, Michael O'Donoghue (another early SNL guy, aka "Mr. Mike." aka a TOTAL FUCKING genius) and that i'd read about Frank Schuster in a Mr. Mike biography (by Dennis Perrin, it's called "Mr. Mike" and worth reading, fuck yeah).

and so! it's clearly MUCH COOLER than if it were just from a woody allen movie.

schwoo.

And then everyone got run over by a truck. (Thanks, Mr. Mike!)

In other news, STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES, my boy Jay Golon (aka "Fucking Einstein") is blogging.

In still other news, 2005 continues to be absolutely, completely, 100% kickawesome.